My Wanderings

It's Not About The Bike... Or Is It?

2010-10-10T03:15:00.001+05:30

Let's face it, only Lance Armstrong can dare say that it's not about the bike, for the rest of us mortals it's as much about the bike or may be more than it is about us. Consider this scenario for example - I am stopped at a red signal, standing next to a Honda Civic and am drawing more attention than the car from people around me. Is it about the bike? Hell ya! Hopefully by the time you are finished reading this post you will realize what makes the bike more noticeable than a Honda.

(More photographs at: http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=198483&id=528135688)

When I took a fall from my bicycle about a month ago or so, most of my friends asked me to be safe... when I had a close call with one of the BEST buses last week again people reminded me of safe cycling... same thing happens when I tell them that I ride on the express highways as well. The fact that I ride at night sometimes also troubles the people who care for me. These things lead people into thinking that I am not a safe rider. Quite on the contrary in fact. I consider myself among the safest cyclists in the city. Let's start from the safety equipment - I use a high quality imported Helmet to protect my head, cycling glasses to prevent my eyes not just from pollution and particles but also to increase visibility in rain, gloves to reduce the impact of handle vibrations and to prevent abrasions from a fall, professional grade knee guards and elbow guards to prevent injuries during a potential fall or a vehicle hitting me while moving too close, a powerful headlight to help me see and help others notice me at night, a flashing tail light to let other drivers see me, reflective tape on the wheel along with the regular reflectors and a reflective band on my ankles that also prevents the pants from getting tangled in the cogs. Now let's talk about riding style - first of all I consider myself as just another vehicle on the road and I follow all traffic rules. I stop at red signals, I stick to my lane, make appropriate signs while changing lanes or turning and maintaining the right speed.

I think every car driver or motorcyclist or bus driver is used to watching cyclists go at slow speeds and then change directions all of a sudden to land up on their way... and that's what they are expecting from every cyclist now so when they find someone who is actually behaving like a cyclist should, they just don't know how to react. They still honk at you from miles away even if you are two lanes apart. I think what hits the other vehicles the most is the fact that I can go pretty fast and sometimes faster than them depending on the road condition and the traffic. I have had motorcyclists and car drivers make remarks at me while overtaking, without realizing that they are barely at the same speed as me or slower if I am the one doing the overtaking.

Then there is something to be said about watchmen and security guards... I am not sure why these folks happen to not like cyclists so much. I have had trouble with them at my office parking, at Vihar Lake, at IIT Powai and so on... I would like to think that I am making the least amount of trouble for them of all people they come across but it's probably about them wanting a vent for their day to day frustration and a cyclist is probably less likely to retaliate than a car driver... size does matter after all.

The people who seem to enjoy my presence on the road the most are the street kids. They will admire all the major and minor details about the bike (whatever they can notice)... the most common ones being the gear system and the disc brakes. I have had strangers (mostly other cyclists) or kids ask me about the price of the bike or where I bought it from. The kid that works in my neighbourhood grocery store rode past me one day and asked me if I live in such and such building... every time I go out to ride at least 5-10 kids wave at me or make some funny comment... sometimes they will ask me to give them a ride... some of them would even try to tempt me to race! You look at their behaviour, compare it with the behaviour of other people and can't fail to realize that the craze for cycling is primarily limited to teenagers in India and most of us just loose respect for it as we grow up as if to say, if it doesn't run on petrol then it doesn't deserve my respect.

It's not about the bike to the extent that the fanciest of the bikes is pretty useless if it sits in the garage or at home all day. And to be able to ride consistently and over long distances in a city like Mumbai you need to make sure that the ride is not just safe but convenient also. This implies getting a ton of accessories for the bike, some of which are pretty expensive. For example, the headlight, the gloves, the lock, the helmet, the protective guards, each one of them costs more than the last bike I had (an Avon Muddy Montage during my IIT days). I can't imagine myself spending that kind of money on accessories for a barebones bike like I had before. But more than safety, more than convenience, it's the motivation that actually gets you riding... and this is where it becomes all about the bike! There is so much to look forward to when riding it... the lightweight that helps me carry it through the stairs to and from my home on the 3rd floor, the 24 gear system that makes going up the inclines a breeze and speeding past the arrogant motorcyclist or the obnoxious bus driver possible, the disc brakes that lend you confidence during the rains or at high speeds, all coming together in a beautifully designed and impeccably manufactured machine that almost seems to promise to last forever. Add to it the feel good factor of doing good to the environment, staying healthy and adding some fun to your exercise regime.

The maximum I ever rode on a bicycle in a day all my life was probably 10 kms or less. Since I got this bike 3 months ago, I have already stretched that number to 70kms and I feel I can push it beyond 100. I ride at over 50kms an hour at times, feel great about overtaking cars while doing that, enjoy the Mumbai rains more than I ever did, feel young and childish enough to want to do stunts I never tried as a kid, dream about riding down to Lonavala on a rainy day or participating in the next Mumbai Cyclothon. I have seen more corners of Mumbai on the bike in 3 months than I did otherwise in 2 years. It's making me fall in love with the city all over again.

It's definitely about the bike.

Nature's Beauty. Nature's Wrath

2010-06-06T03:13:00.005+05:30

Photographs at picasaweb.google.com/himanshu.saraf/TrekkingInHimalayas

This was the 7^th day of my Himalayan trekking expedition to Sar Pass. We started off with two days of conditioning at the base camp in Kasol at 6500 ft, then climbing to the next higher camp of Guna Pani at 8000 ft, followed by Faul Pani at 9500 ft and then Zirmi at 11,000 ft on the 5^th day. Yesterday, we had set out for Tila Lotni at 12,500 ft. This was supposed to be the toughest of all camp sites with very low temperature, high probability of rain and snow and a difficult path to traverse. This however was also the camp that would lead us to our ultimate destination, the Sar Pass at 13,800 ft. On our way to Tila Lotni, we met, to our surprise, the group that had left a day ahead of us for Sar Pass and should be ideally on their way from Tila Lotni to Sar Pass. We learned from them that the weather in Tila Lotni and Sar Pass that morning was so bad that they were advised by their camp leader to drop the idea of crossing Sar Pass and return to the base camp instead. They were all heartbroken obviously for not being able to complete the trek but they were still singing and chanting slogans on their way back. They wished for us to be able to cross Sar Pass and I jokingly said that we would pass it twice, once for us and once for them!

We had met the guide from the other group a couple of days ago in a lower camp and I had taken a few of his photographs. So, he recognised me and started talking to me. I asked him how cold it was up there and if one jacket was enough. He told me that the sole fleece jacket I had won’t be enough for the cold weather at Sar Pass and he suggested that I take his jacket. I tried to refuse but he insisted. I still didn’t want to take his jacket with no way of returning it, so he wrote his name on the sleeve and asked me to leave it at the tea stall at the first camp after descending from Sar Pass. I had to think thrice before taking it as every gram that was added to the back pack meant I will get tired faster on my way up. As it is, my backpack was already more than twice the recommended weight due to my tripod and other camera equipment. I still took the jacket thinking it will serve as a backup in case someone in the group needs it or the weather turns really bad. Regardless, I am still amazed by the simplicity of the people that live in the mountains and the level of trust they demonstrate even in strangers… wish there were more people like him in the cities.

We reached Tila Lotani in the afternoon but not before encountering rain and later on hailstones on the way. Some of us were quite unprepared for the rain and I ended up lending a rain sheet that I had brought to cover my camera bag to one of the girls who didn’t have a rain jacket. There was another girl who was using her regular jacket, which was not water resistant and to make matters worse she was climbing bare footed as she found her shoes too uncomfortable. This would prove to be a mistake later on.

It was close to 3 pm by the time we reached our campsite. We were quickly briefed by our camp leader about our schedule. It was simple - tea at 3 pm, soup at 4, dinner at 6, sleep by 7, get up at 3 am for bed tea, 4 am breakfast and start climbing at 5 am if the weather permits. We spent a few minutes outside to soak in the beauty of nature around us and admire the scenic vistas however the cold wave hit us pretty quickly and most of us chose to stay in our tents for most part, unless we had to come out to get tea or soup or dinner. After dinner I came to know that the girl who was walking barefoot had started vomiting and needed some medical attention. She had not been eating her meals properly either. Another girl had trouble breathing and had to be administered oxygen through a cylinder. One of my tent mates started complaining of a severe headache and nausea and he later decided not to continue with the trek and go back to lower altitude instead. We went to bed by 7 pm or so hoping for clear weather the next day so that we can be allowed to traverse through Sar Pass.

Nature had different plans though. It snowed all night and we woke up at 4 am (the bed tea was delayed because of the snow it seems), the entire campground and the surrounding mountains as far as we could see were covered with snow. It looked stunning but we were apprehensive of our chances to climb further up. The snowfall stopped in the morning and the camp leader felt that the weather has cleared and he allowed us to climb. He however advised the two sick girls not to climb but left the choice with them if they wanted to risk their lives by joining the group. They chose to climb. Pretty brave… might not be too wise in retrospect but courageous nonetheless. So for the first time in 7 days we started trekking in snow… and what snow it was… several inches of fresh powder… had I not been on a trek I would be tempted to snowboard there! We were accompanied by two Sherpas and we were ordered to obey their instructions at all cost. One of the instructions was to walk in a single line and only put our foot in the marks of the person in front of us.

This was it… this is what I came for here… to me the previous 6 days were a prerequisite I had to meet to qualify for this day… trekking in fresh snow in the Himalayas, vast stretches of untouched snow in front of me, no roads, no trails, no foot prints… just a sea of snow… as far as I could see. I was ready with my camera in anticipation of sceneries I had never seen. I didn’t know what to expect but I was expecting something unexpected certainly. The climb was steep and within minutes we were sweating in the freezing weather. The sun was still rising behind us and we slowly and steadily climbed 500-600 ft when it started to snow again. We however kept on climbing, on several occasions the sherpas had to help people climb, as it was very steep or slippery. As we were going up I couldn’t fail but notice that although the sun was rising it was getting darker slowly. There was a thick cloud cover all over the sky and the sky gradually turned from blue in the east to grey and then eventually black towards the west. The whole landscape could easily be painted on a greyscale… the only colours perhaps were of or clothing and bags. The snowfall was getting heavier by the moment and it was getting windy too, resulting in a chill factor. We were starting to feel cold now, specially on the exposed body parts such as nose and lips, and for me fingers as well from operating the camera. This was the time I thanked from my heart the guide who gave me his jacket. I don’t think I could have managed without it; the weather was much severe compared to my expectations when I was planning for the trek.

By the time we ascended a few 100 ft more, we were staring at a snowstorm that was looking to get worse. The wind was so strong that one guy lost his rain jacket out of his hands to the wind! We had somehow made it t almost 13500 ft and were just a few hundred feet away elevation wise from Sar Pass, though distance wise it was still another 2 kms or so I think. We could see in the distance where we were heading and it was not a pretty sight… a snow covered mountain, totally eclipsed by the snowstorm and the frightening black skies… it reminded me of a scene from the movie Lord of the Rings. We were standing at the top of a wedge shaped mountain with a deep valley on one side and a slippery slope on the other side. Just the thought of a wrong step in either direction was enough to make your legs tremble for a second. The sherpas told us that the weather is bad here; it’s worse at Sar Pass and will get even worse as time progresses. All of a sudden there was a question mark on the feasibility of our expedition. Some people were suggesting we go back while others wanted to go ahead since we had already come such a long way and I agreed with them. Standing at that point, for a few minutes while the sherpas were talking to the group leader, I couldn’t stop thinking how moments like these define your true character, what you really are, what life really means to you and what you live for. Whether someone wanted to continue on the trek or go back to the camp was a manifestation of the above. There was a woman who had some family issues back home and she couldn’t be any happier if we decided to go back. Another girl who was feeling very cold and was in a very bad shape physically still wanted to go all the way. I remember her telling me a few days ago that she feels that although she is happy there is no purpose to her life… that would explain her choice. For most part, it was someone’s love, anticipation of meeting someone back home, going back to your family or the life you so cherish at home that drives you to go back from such a point. At the same time, the sense of accomplishment, an extreme liking for adventure and exploring what’s ahead of them, the desire to do what most others can’t, a sadistic pleasure derived by subjecting yourself to extreme conditions, trying to hurt yourself because you want to hurt someone else or just simple ego that they will look weak if they go back… are the primary reasons that people push themselves to keep going. I am not sure what were my reasons, I am not even sure whether I had a stronger desire to traverse Sar Pass or not to go backward but one thing was very clear in my mind – I wanted to move ahead and face that storm, irrespective of the consequences. I had thought of the worst and for some reason it didn’t bother me.

My chain of thought was broken by a discussion among people around me. Turned out that one girl had started feeling very cold and was finding it hard to cope up with it. Another girl, who was on oxygen previously got too scared and had started crying. We told our group leader that we want to move ahead, the group leader had a talk with the sherpas and the sherpas eventually told him that they will not recommend moving forward because of the bad weather and if the group wants to go ahead it should do so at its own responsibility. The fact that there were quite a few people in the group who weren’t well prepared for conditions like these, that some people wanted to go down anyways, and that two girls were in bad shape was enough to make the group leader take the call to go back.

So, within 300 ft elevation and a few kms distance of our destination we decided to go back. Most of us were dejected at not being able to achieve in theory what we came for, but for most practical purposes we had done what we set out for – experience the beauty of nature in one of the purest forms, while damaging it in the least possible way. I am not sure what the final 300ft had in store for us, but not knowing it doesn’t in the least take anything away from what we had experienced in traversing the 7000 ft till that point. If anything, nature has given me a reason to go back there and finish what I have left out this time.

Chandni Raat Mein Nauka Vihar

2009-10-06T13:45:00.005+05:30

More photographs from the trip at: http://picasaweb.google.com/himanshu.saraf/Kerala

For my English readers, the title means "Boat ride in a Moonlit Night". For those who have studied Hindi as a subject in high school specially from CBSE board are probably familiar with the title as one of the sample essays at the end of the Hindi textbook or in a guidebook. I think it was in Grade VI or VII that I came across this essay and had since forgotten this phrase till yesterday when I found myself taking a boat ride in the backwaters of Kerala. I was a little late to arrive in the town of Allepey and by the time I got into a boat it was getting dark and I had missed the sunset. My disappointment however turned into delight soon after when I realized that it was an almost full moon night and I witnessed the picturesque rising of the moon at the horizon with the backwaters and the coconut trees in the foreground. The situation immediately reminded me of this long forgotten phrase (strange is the functioning of our memory I must say).

For a few minutes I smiled at the thought and then I felt I should share it with someone who was familiar with the essay. I didn't have the phone numbers for any of my high school class mates so I called some of my more recent friends, hoping they would have heard of it. So, I called one of them, asked her if she has studied this essay in school and upon confirmation told her that I am doing the same in the Kerala Backwaters and even before I could wait for a reaction from her, she goes, "You are boating in the backwaters alone?? How sad!" Apparently she thinks Kerala is the most romantic place on Earth and is only meant as a honeymoon destination and not a solo trip. I begged to disagree and called up another friend and explained the context to her just as I did to my first friend. She was a little less upfront in letting me know how sad my life was and put it as, "how can you manage to go to such a place alone?" followed by "it's great!" Well, better than the first response at least. Then I get a call from my old roommate who didn't know I was in Kerala. Needless to say he was surprised to know of it too... but he is not a very expressive person so his reaction was limited to, "What are you saying? ... all by yourself?..." turns out that this was going to be the most encouraging response I was to get, later confirmed by another expression of shock I received on gtalk from a friend who already knew I was coming to Kerala alone and had turned down my offer to accompany me. I am not even going to tell you how my Mom reacted when she learnt that I am in Kerala by myself.

So, what is it with God's Own Country and single travellers? Are they like two north poles, oil and water, Ivan Lendl and the Wimbledon Championships that are just not meant for each other? I can understand when someone says that Kerala is a romantic place but then have all singles been permanently banished from romantic destinations? I have had my friends visit Paris or Switzerland during their internships or while making flight connections in Europe but no one really went after their lives. What is so special about Kerala that I am getting such a beating from everyone for making this blunder? So, when I asked the first friend who called Kerala the most romantic place on earth that what makes it so romantic, she was like... I don't know... my friends tell me so! Of course I can't go chasing her friends for that now... on a little more interrogation she admits that she is excited about Kerala because she can go to a good spa there. Good, but why is going to spa a romantic activity and you can't go for it alone? It turns out she wanted to go to Kerala on her honeymoon so that she wouldn't have to pay for the spa! So much for romance... I intend to conduct similar interviews with the other people who questioned my decision to go solo.

I was in Kerala for 3 and a half days and that doesn't do any justice to the place even remotely. So my observations/comments about the place should be taken with a grain of salt. Kerala is indeed an extremely beautiful place with great weather, picturesque sceneries all around, friendly people and a tranquility in the air that makes you feel at peace with yourself. I am sure there are a lot of activities that you might want to indulge in with your significant other but I find it hard to comprehend what it is that should stop a single guy or girl from enjoying the aroma of a tea garden at Munnar, an elephant ride in the Periyar National Park, learn about the plantation of spices in Thekkady or witness a unique boat race in the Allepey backwaters. Whatever little time I spent there was worth it for me and had it not been for all the people reminding me that I am traveling alone, I wouldn't have missed the company of someone special to be able to enjoy any of it.

I am not upset with what people say or opinions they hold - to be honest I knew this reaction from people even before I left for the trip - but I am sure there are many like me who wish to visit Kerala or should visit Kerala but they don't just because it's been tagged as a honeymoon destination and forbidden for singles. I met two single girls from London who were on a week's trip to Kerala and they were having a great time (no they weren't on their honeymoon!). I don't think God intended that His country should be enjoyed only by those who come in pairs... and there is no reason we should try and make it that way. So, to all those lone travelers out there - Pack your bags! God's Own Country awaits you :-)

It is written...

2009-03-30T10:57:00.003+05:30

30th March 2009, Michigan, USA

For those of you who have seen Slumdog Millionaire, you would kind of get the drift of this post by the title, those of you who haven't, I will let you watch the movie :-)

So, I have been going over some of the recent incidents in my life with my close friends and for some reason these discussions always lead up to a point where someone says Oh it was all for the good... or It probably wasn't meant to be... or It was not in any one's control... And then they will go on explaining how they know of certain events in the past that could only be explained by a concept called destiny.

I for one never believed in it. I think it's a side effect of being an engineer or having a scientific mind... I think of anything in terms of logic, rationale and a proof. Now I have conducted hundreds of experiments inside the laboratory to prove or disprove different hypotheses but what's unique about the theory of destiny is that you can't conduct an experiment to verify or reject it. If we want to put it in scientific terms, the hypotheses would say, "Any event that occurs in your life, would have occurred irrespective of any one's actions leading up to that event" e.g. if I am destined to get late for office tomorrow, it wouldn't matter whether I sleep in time tonight, sleep late or don't sleep at all, I would get late regardless. Now if I wanted to verify it then I can try and stay up all night and go to office in time tomorrow to disprove the destiny theory but the catch lies in the fact that no one tells the hypotheses before hand... it's always a hindsight and hindsight we all know is 20/20. If I stay up all night and go to the office in time, proponents of destiny would say, well I was destined to be on time then! For me to able to conduct an experiment to prove or disprove the theory, one of two things have to happen. I either need to be told what's destined BEFORE it happens or I need the capability to go back in time after the event happens to change my actions leading up to the event to see if the outcome differs. Let's consider these one by one.

The first condition - knowing what's destined beforehand. I don't know if this can be done or not. There are a lot of people in this world who make a living out of telling others their fortune. I wonder if such a person can tell anyone how much money he is going to make by telling fortunes on any given day before the day starts... Now, we all know that these people are sometimes right and most often either wrong or vaguely correct (when they say something like next year is going to be a very crucial year for you...). So, if these people are proven wrong on an occasion does that mean there is no destiny... not really... all we can say from this experiment is that particular person didn't make an accurate prediction... The event that he predicted may not have occurred either because he didn't know what he was talking about, or because of the fact that the knowledge of the future event led someone to change his actions to avoid it from happening or that the outcome was never meant to be fixed... and no one could have predicted it. And proponents of destiny will always tell you that it was the first reason... that you didn't talk to the right guy... what happened was indeed your destiny but the fortune teller wasn't good enough to tell... So, that's a deadlock.

The second condition - going back in time. Now, we have all seen Back To The Future, read about H G Wells Time Machine, fascinated by Arnold's journey back in time to save his folks in Terminator 2 and some of us have contemplated the possibility of time travel made possible by the existence of a unified field theory... but till someone gets a Grand Super Duper Noble Prize by making it possible I find it easier to stick to the theory of general relativity and say that nothing can travel faster than light and hence you can't go back in time.

So, now that both the possibilities are ruled out how do I conclude either way? There are two major kinds of explanations in science... hypotheses and law (there is a 3rd kind called theory as well but it's not going to make a difference to this discussion so let's chuck it). Let me explain the difference. Hypotheses is an educated guess based on general observation. It offers you a rational explanation of an event based upon an observation. It can't be proven but can be disproved, So once a hypotheses gains some acceptance by repeated observations, although it was never proven to be correct , it stands true until proven wrong. Most hypotheses however can be supported or refuted by experimentation or repeated observation.

A Law on the other hand explains events without telling you why it occurs. These are fairly simple, true, universal and absolute. There is no proof for a law and is taken at face value because it has always explained some events e.g. the law of gravitation... Newton never had to prove it, no one can... as long as it explains the apple falling towards the earth's surface, people will be happy to accept it.

Since we have already seen that destiny can't be proven or refuted, it's not a hypotheses. Do we want to call it a law? I think this is where the divide occurs... there are some of us like me who wouldn't even put destiny and law together in one room and others who can't imagine the two being separate entities. And once you say it's a law, you no longer require a proof. You make your observation and destiny will always explain that observation (remember by definition, whatever you observe is destiny!!) so for those people it's no less than Newton's Law of Gravitation... and non believers like me trying to find an answer to this question... we are sort of in the same situation as King Vikramaditya was when he had to fetch Betaal from the tree... we are trying to answer a question... if we know the answer Betaal flies back to the tree... the only way we can fetch him is to not know...

A Perfect Weekend...

2009-03-30T01:47:00.007+05:30

29th March 2009, Michigan, USA

I had been in US for two weeks and had not ventured out much from my hotel except for going to the office or an occasional dinner. So, when I made an impromptu plan to go to Chicago and Milwaukee on one weekend, I felt pretty good about it. A trip to Chicago served a dual purpose - it was a transit point for Milwaukee which was my final destination, and I had to visit the Dutch embassy to apply for a Schengen visa. I left home pretty early in the morning to catch the train and it was a very cold morning, perhaps the coldest on this trip. I reached the station way before the scheduled departure time of my train and had to wait outside for an hour in the cold for the station to open... yes the station doors were locked!

It was meant to be a 3 hour train journey, taking me to Chicago at 11:15. The Dutch embassy closes at 12:30 and was about a 10 minute drive from the train station so I had thought I will be there in time to apply for the visa. Unfortunately, the train got delayed on its way to Chicago because of construction work... delayed by almost 40 minutes! I reached Chicago at about noon, rushed out of the station, took the first cab I saw and for the first time in life, sat in a cab with a lady driver (big mistake!). I gave her the address of the embassy and just to be extra safe I told her that it is the Netherlands Embassy and I asked her if she knows the place. She looked at me and said, "I know this address but that's not where the embassy is... the embassy is in a different direction" Then she asks me where do you want to go.. I said I have a visa appointment so I need to go to the embassy... and she insisted it's somewhere else... well, I was a bit perplexed but I decided to stick with the address I had and it turned out that the embassy she had in mind was the Indian embassy and she had assumed that being an Indian, that's where I wanted to go!

Anyways, I reach the embassy building at about 12:15, and as I walk into the lobby, I saw that there is a lady with a sign in register at the front desk. I could have ignored her and taken the elevator to my desired floor but for some reason I thought I would sign in (2nd mistake!). I told her that I want to go to the Dutch embassy and she is like oh sorry, you can't... they are closed! I am like what? I regained my senses quickly and told her that I believe it's open till 12:30 and I will like to give it a shot. So, I go the embassy and miraculously the embassy was open during the hours they claimed to be open... if only I was naive enough to believe the lady at the front desk...

It was a short line for the interview, with 4 people ahead of me and turned out that I was the last person for the day. Two guys in front of me were applying for their visa together. One Colombian guy and another Chinese, both students in a US university and were going on a few weeks Eurotrip. Man, were those guys clueless or what... they absolutely had no documentation, hadn't bothered to check the requirements of the visa and didn't have an idea of their itinerary. They were accompanied by a friend who apparently had traveled quite a bit and knew a lot about visa requirements and procedures. It was funny watching those guys being interviewed and this girl whispering answers to them from behind :-) ... the interviewer would ask what is your date of arrival in Netherlands, and the Chinese guy will say 1st of July and the American guy will say 10th of July and the girl will yell (quietly) in the background... guys it's 1st of JUNE!! Then they will change the dates again and after a while something will hit them and the Chinese guy will ask the interviewer with a guilt, "can we change our dates again?"...

The interviewer was being very helpful to them throughout. The guys didn't have their itinerary citing the reason that if the visa got rejected they would lose the booking fee on the ticket. She even told them that you don't have to book a ticket, just plan an itinerary on expedia or orbitz and print it out... just make sure it coincides with your intended dates of travel... The Colombian guy didn't have proof of sufficient funds and he said that the Chinese guy has it and he will cover the whole expense.. and the interviewer is like, "well, you can get your mother's bank statements as a proof of funds, I can't accept your friend's statement unless he is your... you know... he is just a friend... " :-) . The interviewer had to explain them each and everything about the visa process, and she had to ask them to fax her pretty much all the required documents... I must say that she was extremely patient and nice about the whole thing. If it was a US embassy those guys would have been rejected 10 times over in the duration they were at the window. After their interview, the Chinese guy turns to the girl and says... you know... I am thinking... and the girl goes.. "Joe! Please don't think!! just get the hell out of here before they reject you :-)"

So, my turn comes... I tell her that I think I have all the documents in place... and I did. The only problem she pointed out was that I should have applied for the visa in India and I may or may not get approved... but I knew that I will, so I didn't bother much. It was a short interview but by the time the interview got over it was almost 1:15... I never imagined that people work beyond the stipulated hours in any embassy... I must say I was very impressed by the Dutch courtesy.

I had to catch a train to Milwaukee after that but I still had about 2 hours to the next train and the weather was pretty nice. It was windy and cold but sunny so I decided to walk to the train station and check out the Chicago downtown... I had been there before a couple of times but this part of the downtown was new to me... plus I was walking along the river which I love doing... that's one thing I enjoy about big American cities, almost all of them have a river , harbour or sea... New york, Boston, Chicago, Baltimore, San Francisco... anyways, so I walked along enjoying the weather and taking a few pictures. I felt hungry after a while as I didn't have breakfast so I stopped by a nice cafe, had a grilled sandwich, ate it by the window looking outside... had a coffee to go and started walking again... it probably took me about half an hour or a little more to reach the station but it was a pleasant walk... and on the way I encountered a few familiar sights... I came across the Deloitte office and although I had never been to this office before it still meant something to me as I had sent my application to the Chicago office though I was eventually hired in Washington DC. All this time I was looking for another landmark, i had a vague recollection that it's somewhere in the downtown, didn't know where... and suddenly I found it... right around the corner from Deloitte's building... it was an Au Bon Pain cafe in the lobby of a building... and a few floors above was the office of the company that had made me the first job offer after my graduation... suddenly those days after school flashed in front of my eyes... the job search, interviews, cover letters, phone screens... the interview in Chicago, the coffee I had in Au Bon Pain after the interview while reading "Threads" by Joseph Abboud... and suddenly I felt I missed something... don't know what...

The station was very close by from there... the train was on time and in an hour and half I was in Milwaukee. My friend from Baltimore, Vijay was there to pick me up. I met him after about 4 months and I must say that at the time I left USA to go back to India, if someone had told me that I will get to attend the weddings of 3 of my best friends in US and that I will get to see some of them once every few months, I wouldn't have believed it... at that time it felt like I am leaving most of it behind for good... how shortsighted was I...

Things have changed a lot though... as I said 3 of my best friends including Vijay are now married, so now I get to meet his wife Nandini as well. Last time I visited them she taught me how to make some authentic South Indian food :-) . She wasn't feeling too well this time so I didn't insist on learning something new though just like last time, she did have aloo parathas ready for me! And yes, I was ecstatic to find a tulsi plant in his house... it has been years since I had tea with fresh tulsi leaves... so I made it a point to make tea the next morning with tulsi leaves :-) Most of Friday was spent talking, catching up with the happenings in each others lives... some words of wisdom exchanged, some banter, some leg pulling and some funny stories told and remembered... :-)

Next day was planned to the minute... we got up, I made poha with tulsi tea and then sat in the balcony to soak in some sun (all part of the plan! wasn't like we were wasting time)... then we went out for lunch to meet some friends, i knew only of them, the wife of another very close friend of mine from Baltimore. It was again a nice, sunny day and we were delighted to be outside. The wind made it colder than it was but pleasant nonetheless. We met the other group at the restaurant... it was an Indian buffet... I always thought that I am a perfect customer for these restaurants that run buffet meals... I don't eat meat, hardly eat much in vegetarian food and to their delight don't touch any desserts... Anyways, it didn't take long for everyone to mix up and know each other. After lunch we decided we will go the lake shore and enjoy the sun. We walked along a pier for a while but it was getting increasingly windy as we went deeper into the water so most of us decided were in favor of not going too far. One of us had a cricket bat and a few tennis ball in the car trunk so we brushed up on our cricket skills. It was fun playing after quite some time but the biggest discovery of the day was that Kalpana is a better player than her husband Karthik.

After cricket, the girls tried their hand at children's swings and they sucked at it... then they jogged in the sand with leather shoes on... that was hilarious to watch... and from there it went funny to crazy... we played tic tac toe in the sand, then kadakko... for which no one remembered how to draw the boxes, I thought I will call up my cousin in India to get some instructions but it was pretty late so I let it go. Then we played langdi-choo (or langdi taang or whatever you call it)... it's this game where you divide yourself into two teams and one player from a team goes into the other team's court hopping on one leg and has to touch someone and come back to her court... turned out to be a lot of fun... and I rocked, never went out even once! :-) Then people raced, first on two legs and then graduated to a three legged race... reminded me of high school days! We ended our beach session on a high note by playing the super hit game called Ramu! Thanks Paliwal for introducing us to this game more than 3 years ago... and I have never lost in it since then.. with all due modesty, I rock in this game :-) ... all the Gold Spots can vouch for it! (I apologize to those who are missing the context here... may be I will explain the game in a separate post)

The day wasn't over yet... there was a cool retro style cafe near the lake, so we all went there, grabbed a cup and had a nice long conversation. Something weird happened in between... an American guy... kind of in his 30s, tried to make conversation with me and he was so so weird. I couldn't make head or tail of what he said to me, he had a cross hanging from his neck so I thought he is one of those guys who preach about religion and all but none of his talk had a religious bend... he looked at me in a gay way but then he was too shabbily dressed to be one... he high-fived me for no reason whatsoever... anyways... someone in the group suggested we go watch a movie after the coffee but some of us were pretty tired by then so we decided to call it a day. Vijay, Nandini and I headed back home but we managed to stop by a Barnes and Noble and Boston Store to check out some stuff. By the time we reached home, all we wanted to do was eat something, lie down, listen to music, chat and sleep... well, we deserved it!

Sunday was pack up day. We had to leave early for Chicago to meet some friends and visit a temple, so we got ready, made tea to go and headed out for Chicago. I didn't think I had been to that temple before but it looked awfully familiar, may be I had been to another one exactly like it. Met a couple of Nandini's friends there and it turned out that it's a very small world... her friends and I had a lot of common friends from my IIT days... we had delicious South Indian food in the temple and I even packed enough for me to bring home with me (it lasted me almost 3 days!)... Nandini's friends were fortunately headed in the same direction as my apartment so they graciously agreed to offer me a ride.. it was about a 3 hour journey and we made full use of this time cursing the hell out of the AIG guys, and the investment banks and anyone else who we didn't like.

It's almost always a hollow feeling after you come back to an empty home after being with those whom you like but I have done this enough number of times now to take it in my stride. I came home, turned on the TV, checked my email and got on with the real life...

Look for the Base Note

2009-03-23T10:05:00.004+05:30

22nd March 2009, Michigan, USA

I was in the Boston Store at Brookfield Mall with a friend, whom I was visiting in Milwaukee, looking for some luggage items. I entered the store and by default had to pass by the perfumes section as those are usually at the entrance of most of these stores for obvious reasons :-). I suddenly recalled that a friend of mine is a big fan of a Gucci perfume so I thought I will check it out for her in case it's available. The store unfortunately didn't have the brand I was looking for but the sales woman showed me the new brand that was in. She mentioned that the one I was asked for has been discontinued.

We came back home but I wasn't fully satisfied with her response, so I went online to Gucci's website to realize that perfume is still available, so I told my friend that the sales woman lied to us about it being discontinued. Then we started talking about how this perfume is different from the ones she showed us. I told him that perfumes are generally composed of three different fragrances called notes which makes up for a harmonious scent. The top note or the head note is the scent you get immediately after you apply the perfume and for the next few minutes to an hour, then it makes way for what is called the middle note or the heart note which is the main body of the perfume that kicks in once the top note starts to fade, this scent can last for many hours. Eventually as the heart note grows lighter, you start to smell the base not of the perfume. The base note is the underlying tone of the perfume and brings depth to a perfume. Over time, the top note and the heart note soften and the base note is the scent left at the end of the day.

Now my friend has been happily married for a little over an year now and we used to have discussion in the past about what he is looking for in a girl, what works for him and what doesn't. Since his marriage the roles have kind of reversed and he has been giving me advice about what should I look for in a girl, what matters and what doesn't etc. So, he was listening to my explanation of perfumes very attentively all this while and after I was done talking, he looks at me and says, "Himanshu, you should look for the base note in a girl!". I didn't ask him for any explanation, the metaphor was obvious. And out of all the discussions we ever had about relationships, this is one I am not going to disagree with even a bit... when it comes to perfumes and girls... look for the base note... when all else fades away that is what matters...

Mumbai (Airport) Meri Jaan

2009-02-16T16:30:00.011+05:30

I have for quite some time maintained that Mumbai airport is among the worst in the world, if not the worst. Having visited close to a 100 airports, I don't think it's quite an uninformed opinion either. There are a number of reasons why Mumbai airport beats everyone else hands down in this race - the long waiting lines, the disorganized management of the airport, unfriendly airport staff, scarcity of sign boards to guide people around (specially international travelers), the vultures near the baggage claim area offering to help you clear the customs and so on. Sometimes they make you walk almost half a mile from where they stop your cab to where the airport gate is, at other times you wander aimlessly to find a taxi outside the airport.

Well, all this was in the past and I have been trying hard to get over it. People keep telling me that things have improved a lot and I could notice several positive changes at the domestic terminal myself. But just like the nightmare where I fall of a cliff into a river, bad experiences with Mumbai airport keep coming back to me. Here is the latest one.

It's valentine's day and I am headed to Delhi from where I am supposed to catch a train to Kanpur. My cousin is getting married next week and being quite close to her I made it a point to attend the ceremony. So, I am flying Air India and the flight is at 8 am. I didn't reach home from my office until 1:30 am since I was handing over my work to a colleague. Forced by habit, I had deferred packing for the last moment and started packing only about 2:30 (what did I do between 1:30 and 2:30? check emails of course... didn't I check them while I was in office? of course I did... were there any new emails in this one hour... not really). Since I was going for a wedding I had to pack most of the good clothes I had since I wasn't sure what I would wear. Packing, emails, TV and shower killed the next two hours and I was done by 4:30. Now I had two choices, either go to sleep for a couple of hours and then get up in time for the flight or pull an allnighter. Given my reputation as an extremely bad early riser, I decided I will just stay up.

Later I realized a friend of mine is leaving for Delhi in the morning, though her flight was an hour before mine. So, I thought since I am up and ready anyways, I might as well go to the airport early and hang out with her. Now since she was flying Jetlite and I was on Air India and these two airlines have different terminals, I planned to first check my bag in and then drop by her terminal to say hi. So, I reach the airport and get in the line at the Air India terminal. After 10 minutes of waiting when I reached the door, the security told me that this Air India flight that I am on leaves from the international terminal! And without sparing any extra words or time he asks me to get out of the line. Now suddenly my focus has shifted from meeting my friend to making my flight! How did he know so easily that my flight was leaving from the international terminal? Apparently all flights starting with AI and not IC leave from the intl terminal. Too bad I didn't know because it's obviously not the airline's responsibility at all to tell its passengers that the domestic flight that they are planning to take is not really a domestic flight but an international flight with a Bombay to Delhi domestic leg. I should have totally imagined that... I can understand airlines not being able to predict the departure gates in advance but something that they have known ever since that flight existed and still can't print on my e-ticket or pop up a message at the time of booking or send an SMS is beyond reasoning for me.

Anyways, that's the airline bit. Coming back to the airport - I am not sure why this model emerged but India seems to be the only country where you have different national and international airports in the same city and no attempt is made by the airlines or the airport authorities to distinguish them clearly. Even if you had to keep two airports, some distance apart from each other, for God sake at least provide a decent shuttle service between the two airports and put a sign somewhere as to where the shuttle runs from. I have heard Delhi airport has a shuttle of this sort though never had to use it. The last time I was about to reach the wrong airport in Delhi, my brother told me so on the way and I rectified 'MY' mistake. The reason my brother knows is because he has made that mistake in Delhi and would have missed his flight had he not paid a ridiculous amount of money to a taxi to drive him to the right terminal, they didn't have the shuttle then. But Mumbai for sure has no such service. To make matters more pleasant for the wretched passenger the airport doesn't allow auto-rickshaws and taxis to pick up passengers from the arrival terminal. Now this part beats the hell out of me - you don't run a shuttle, and you don't let anyone else run anything either... great. If you come to drop someone at the airport in a taxi then go figure how would you go back since that cab is not allowed to take you back! What's the way around? C'mon... all Indians know the answer to this question by now... pay more than you have to and pay someone something they don't deserve and you can get the job done. Autos are not allowed to run this route for a normal fee but they can of course do it for about 10 times the fare because then they can bribe whoever would have stopped them from doing it. So yes, I paid a rickshaw exactly that and for some reason I was initially failing to understand the driver took an assistant with him while leaving the airport. When we were near the international terminal, he got down and then his assistant took over the steering and told me that the driver was drunk and was afraid of being caught at the international terminal.

So, I reach the international terminal, ask an airport staff where is the check-in line for my flight to Delhi, got into that line and (I should have been expecting this by now) after waiting for 20 minutes for my turn was told that I am in the wrong line (the lack of a flight no. on top of that counter should have been sign enough for any doubting passengers) and the Delhi flight check in is somewhere hidden behind an adjoining wall (how could I not see it!). So, I go there, check in. They give me a white form where I had to declare that I am not carrying any dutiable goods with me and was told to deposit this form to the customs. Now I am sure there is a separate process somewhere for domestic passengers but the fact that I am totally incapable of reading English or understanding signs, I had to go through the same lines and steps that international passengers do, half of the times being told that I don't need to be here I could have just walked through an oblivious unmarked passage somewhere... Anyways, at every stage I checked if I should give them that white form and the answer was at the next check... well, I am on a train from Delhi to Kanpur right now and the form is still with me. I am going to try the ticket check at Kanpur station... they might want it.

Anyways, after all checks I finally reach the domestic gate for Air India and man, I can't tell you how bad that place was stinking. It was like a damp basement without a window that hasn't seen fresh air for months and you have filled it with sweaty people... that sort of smell... I still had some time in my flight so I went to an international gate. I called up my friend flying to Delhi and wished her Valentine's day (that plan worked out well...) and then decided to write this blog. Since I was up all night, I wanted to grab a coffee while I write. Fortunately there was a cafe right there and I order a Cappuccino with Peach flavor. The guy seemed to take longer than it should and after making the coffee he took the cup to his co-worker and sheepishly asked him, "does this happen to coffee when you add peach to it?" the other guy is like, "No, you can't add flavors to coffee, they are meant only for tea". I felt like I had walked into a "chai ki tapdi" asking for a hazelnut latte with a double shot of espresso. What had happened to the coffee was that the milk had curdled and they tried to blame it on the peach and instead asked me to have a plane cappuccino instead. By that time I had lost the trust in them and walked away and started writing without the coffee.

The flight itself was good and uneventful. They gave us breakfast which was much needed since I was very hungry. It's a good feeling these days to being offered anything on a plane without being asked to pay for it. All said and done, Air India continues to be favourite airline when it comes to food :-)

This is a Good Day!

2008-12-05T18:34:00.002+05:30

4th December 2008, Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam

It's one of those days when you are not very sure if it's a good day or a bad one. So I had to make a connection at Amsterdam for my flight to Mumbai, there is a long line at the security check but then the elite line was totally empty - it almost gave an impression that it was closed. Turned out it was open and I was able to save an hour of waiting time... and then when they were checking me in, for the first time on an international flight I was upgraded to Business Class! It's funny... only yesterday I was thinking how I used to get upgraded to First Class on domestic US flights but never on any international flight... I wondered if they do free upgrades on international routes at all... well, I have my answer now :-)

And then when the baggage had to go through the X-ray machine I asked for my camera film to be hand inspected... they said it has to be above 800 ASA for hand inspection, mine was 800! Remember how in school you used to get 79.8 points on an exam only to realize that the A grade starts from 80? That's the kind of feeling I got... I requested for a hand check anyways and they tried to convince me that it's going to be fine in the machine. Upon my persistence they agreed to hand check it but then their supervisor intervened saying it's just too many to check manually, which was weird since I got it hand checked at the Detroit airport without any issues... well, in the end I wasn't given the choice and had to put it through the machine. After the bag came out of the machine, the security guy tried to be funny and said, "See, nothing happened to it!" ... I would have smiled in most situations but considering that the film was for my newly bought Polaroid camera that I was too excited to put to use upon reaching India, cost more than $100 and probably not available in India (except may be at a few specialty stores)... I didn't find it amusing. I couldn't help but recall how I brought a lot of film back from US to India for my brother's wedding and had checked it in. I used the film to take pictures at the wedding and we were all shocked to see the prints turn out washed out, spotted and with all kind of other weird effects... never before had I screwed up such important photographs...

Oh well, I will at least get the eye shades now on the plane that I tried so hard to find at the Wal-Marts in Michigan! (to be fair to Wal-Mart I did find a pair at a Wal-Mart in Wisconsin but then those were just too fluorescent green for my taste) And for those who are going to argue that I could have got them in Economy as well... I asked and was refused... being told that those are only for business class passengers... ok, business class it is... anything for a good sleep :-)

Wondermere

2008-10-02T02:23:00.009+05:30

Now those familiar with the English topography would claim that I have just made a spelling mistake in the title and it should be Windermere. Technically they would be right as that's how you would find it on the map. To my defense, I would claim poetic license to replace Winder with Wonder so that I can make it sound like a wonderful place and make the title catchy, that's it, no better reason.

Given that I really enjoy traveling and typically do a lot of sightseeing in new places it was surprising for me that I confined myself primarily to the office and my apartment for the first two weeks of my stay in Manchester, well, leaving apart a weekend trip to London. In keeping with the spirit of the trip though, I didn't do any sightseeing in London and just stuck to spending some quality time (read lazing around, watching movies, eating good food, having coffee by the window and bitching about others) with a couple of friends. And for some weird reason I was content! While I was in London I had almost decided that I will come back there the following weekend as well and do almost the same things over again. I think I just felt happy being in one of my favourite cities.

Anyways so I came back to Manchester and the week went by pretty quickly. My office is right next to the Old Trafford cricket stadium and walking distance to the Manchester United football stadium, which is pretty cool. Unfortunately there were no cricket matches being played in Old Trafford this month and despite my best efforts I couldn't find a ticket for a Man-U game. The closest I came to watching a Man U game was to see the fans, walking past me on my way back home after a hard day's work, to see the game against Villarreal. They were wearing the official Man U jersey which read AIG. I couldn't help but recall an email that I received earlier that day from a friend with an image attachment called "The New Man U Jersey" and it had AIG replaced with FED :-)

By the time Friday came I was almost set for another trip to London. I was trying to convince myself to stay back in Manchester so that I get to see the city more closely and take a few pictures as well. All such possibilities vanished when I looked up Lake District on the web on my colleague's recommendation. Next thing you know I was on a train to Windermere on Saturday morning, one of the towns and the main train station in Lake District. Windermere in many ways reminded me of Scotland... not as beautiful as Scotland but the closest I had come so far in England...
The forecast was of a cloudy and rainy weekend but we were pleasantly surprised to be treated with an almost rain-free morning and a warm and sunny afternoon. The trip included a small hike in Windermere, a lake cruise and a walk along the river on one of the smaller islands near Windermere called Ambleside. I also got to catch a local rugby game going on in Ambleside and being my first live experience of watching Rugby, it was quite cool. We managed to get lost in a 2 hour walk along the island but were able to make our way back in the nick of time to catch the cruise back to the town and eventually the train to Manchester.Sunday was equally whimsical as I got up and decided to go to Liverpool to catch an English county cricket match live between Lancashire and Somerset. Liverpool was just under 2 hours by train from Manchester and the match started at 12:30 so I didn't have to get up ridiculously early and could even manage a light breakfast before leaving home. I had to take a local train from the Liverpool train station to go where the game was. Finding directions to the stadium was a piece of cake as I simply had to follow the crowd getting out of the train. Buying tickets had never been easier - I walked into the stadium, there were two folks selling tickets holding a box like the ones used by lottery vendors in India... all tickets costed the same, no que, no seat numbers... open seating in the entire stadium, except in the pavilion which was reserved for players and some corporates. I walked into the stadium and was delighted to see that there was no fence. The seats started right from where the rope was and you could easily walk up to the pitch and the nets where the players were practising. You could easily talk to anyone, take autographs, pictures or whatever you wanted to do... there were kids playing with their own bat and ball on the ground! There were people of all ages watching the game and they were equally aware of the rules and the players' names and the nuances of the game. Every good shot was cheered and wicket applauded irrespective of whether it was in favour of or against the home team. In fact it took me a while to figure out which was the home team :-). Soon after, the hot water mugs came out, along with the tea bags and there it was... The old English way of watching cricket... nice sunny afternoon, the game of gentlemen and an elderly couple sipping a cup of English tea... and stopping every once in a while to record the events in their scorebook - Oh did I tell you that many of the spectators bring their own scorebooks for the game?

It was a close game with Somerset winning by three wickets and throwing Lancashire out of Division 1 for the next season. It was a bad day for Manchester in general as Man-U lost to Liverpool the same day - turned out to be Liverpool's first victory in an year! The highlight of the game for me was to watch Justin Langer and Marcus Trescothick walk in front of me while going in to open the innings (no one stopped me from walking up to the side-screen where the players entry was from) and then later when a ball hit for four came all the way towards me and stopped right at my feet - and I picked it up and handed it over to the fielder... I was thinking if it had been a game of Baseball, the ball would have belonged to me! Finders Keepers... :-)

The weekend after that, which was my last in UK, was again spent in London but I did manage to go out a bit in Manchester during the week. One of the trips was to the Asian neighbourhood in Manchester called Rusholme. On the surface you will find a lot of Indian restaurants there but almost all of them are run by folks from Pakistan and may be Bangladesh. In fact you will have a very tough time finding a genuine Indian restaurant in Manchester... I asked a few friends living there about it - they didn't know - and I wasn't surprised. On a similar note it's difficult to hail a taxi in Manchester without being greeted by a Pakistani driver and if you ever find an English or some other foreign driver, you can almost always feel the grudge they have against so many Asian drivers taking away their business and against their presence in Manchester in general. One of them was funny... he thought that I am from America as he found my accent to be American - this was a first for me :-)

In general I found Manchester to be a dull city, atleast when compared to London, but one interesting aspect of Manchester is the dress code parties or bar nights going on almost every day (these might be on specific days of the week but I didn't track it that well...). You could fine people walking on the streets dressed up really crazily to make you feel like its Halloween. The closer you are to the Univ of Manchester area, the higher the density of such folks and lesser their age. Apart from that, shops close pretty early and even restaurants are not open late in the night... as my gtalk status message used to say till a few days ago - The City Sleeps at 6! since I have been asked this question before, I would clarify, it's 6 pm not am :-)

More photographs to follow at http://picasaweb.google.com/himanshu.saraf

Side Effects of Online Shopping

2008-08-28T13:16:00.005+05:30

25th August 2008
So, I had ordered a gas stove from future bazaar and it was supposed to be delivered at home. I had also ordered some pots and pans and they were being shipped separately. For some background, my truly semi-furnished apartment had come with an empty cylinder, no valid gas connection and a gas stove without the burners. For the last one month I have been strugling to get the gas cylinder filled since I don't have a valid connection. I therefore need to get it in black, which would cost about Rs. 650... which I am willing to pay... still it's taking like for ever... apparently none of the 12 watchmen in my apartment complex seem to have a clue about where the residents get their cylinders from!

I got a call in my office yesterday afternoon from a courier guy saying that he is at my apartment with the delivery from futurebazaar so I asked him to leave it with the reception. I also told the security that I will collect it at night from whoever is at the desk at the moment. At night when I went back and walked to the reception, there was a gas stove waiting for me, so I took it, then the watchman also gave me a pipe and a regulator with it... I wasn't expecting that a stove would include it but I thought it's good... I needed it anyways... and then I saw a gas cylinder lying there... it reminded me and I reminded the watchman that I need a cylinder to be filled as well. This is where it gets interesting... the watchman said... this cyliner is yours as well... I obviously was surprised and told him that I ordered just a stove, nothing more and he goes... "it's some scheme from HP" I don't remember the last time I was so pleasantly surprised but somehow I controlled my emotions and said, "I need to get it filled anyways"... and he said... It's already filled! I was like... this is not true... I paid Rs. 700... I can't get a stove, a pipe, a regulator and a filled cylinder... all this for 700 when the gas refill itself was just 650. The security personnel seemed convinced that it's possible... Now, I remember the last time I was so pleasantly surprised... it was about one minute ago... I thought ok... Chamatkar... great... God Tussi Great Ho types. I anyways deserved some good treatment after the bad experience with Future Bazaar (They had messed up my order previously and I had to write to the customer service and spend a few days getting things sorted out). So I came to my room with all the stuff, unpacked everything, set it up and for a moment felt like... have you seen the movie Dark Knight? the joker at one point says "I am like this dog chasing a car but if I ever caught one I won't know what to do with it". That's how I felt like after setting everything up. I lit up the lighter and after making sure that the gas works... happily went to bed.

I got up in the morning, looked at my kitchen and thought... nothing comes this easy in life. I kept feeling that something was wrong... anyways, I was leaving the apartment for a while and I met the watchman on the way. I told him that I am expecting another package today (the pots n pans, remember?) and he took out a packet and handed over to me and said it came for you yesterday! That was the pots and pans... one might have thought that the call I got from the courier guy was for these pots and pans but being the eternal optimist that I am, I thought may be I received two couriers yesterday, the stove as well as the pans. Then I went back to my room and went online... futurebazaar site... and checked my order status... it said, pots n pans delivered... gas stove - ON THE WAY!

28th August 2008
I had a very difficult time convincing myself to do the right thing and go tell the watchmen to find the person to whom all that stuff belonged. It's been 3 days since and the stuff is still with me... no one has claimed it yet and it hurts to just let it sit in the kitchen and not use it... but it will hurt even more to let it go... :-(

I even called a friend on the night I received the stuff and both of us convinced each other that it's a good marketing ploy by HP to provide such schemes and how it will give them an edge over Bharat Petroleum and how the advent of pipelines might have triggered such a move... you can tell that both of us are fresh MBAs.

But seriously, mera to ab chamatkaron par se vishwaas hi uth gaya hai.

Ek Akela Is Shahar Mein

2008-08-19T02:23:00.004+05:30

July 20th, 2008
Before I start, I am going to be very optimistic and assume that this blog will be read in the non-Hindi speaking part of the world as well and I will therefore translate the title into English as well. It reads,"A lone guy in this city", this city being Mumbai and the lone guy as one could easily guess is yours truly. It's been 3 weeks since I moved to Mumbai and I haven't been able to find my groove yet. Not to say that I don't like the city, I think I do, it's just that the time it takes to get used to the ways of this city is perhaps much more than any other. But then, no other city is quite like Mumbai either.

I took a train from Kanpur to Mumbai and was met at the Dadar station by a driver sent by my company to pick me up. I was also met at the station by Vishnu, my roommate from business school who now lives in Mumbai. The hotel was about 10 kms from the station and it took us about 2 hours to traverse the distance - fairly common going North from Dadar in the evenings. I won't say I was surprised but it did serve as a crude reminder of how much 'fun' traveling was going to be in Mumbai.

The next few days were great- meeting friends, family and co-workers and enjoying the change of environment after a long break since B-school got over. But soon I had to take the plunge into one of my most grueling experiences in recent times - APARTMENT HUNTING! The last time I looked for an apartment was in Washington DC and I spent a good two months doing so, but that was for other reasons (I was traveling to Cincinnati every week and only had weekends to look for a place). I had about 2 weeks in Mumbai to find a place else my company would kick me out of my hotel room... well, that's an exaggeration I would admit, they would have asked me very politely to bear my own expenses.

So, I started looking for a suitable apartment online on a number of websites and I was delighted to find hundreds of postings for 'my ideal place' to live. I noted down the details of many and called up the agent and booked an appointment to see the few places I really liked. I show up for the apartment viewing at the scheduled time and realize how much of a novice I was to think that those were my ideal places to live! Almost nothing was as advertised - as long as the place has enough space for 3 people to stand it counts as capacious, if you are seeing anything but your neighbour's window from your balcony then it's a great view, as long as you can reach the airport or train station within 1 hour from there it's called right next to it, anything less than 10 years old is new, put together a dining table, a bed and a refrigerator and you have got yourself a fully furnished apartment, not to forget if you can reach your house without falling into a man hole or being robbed on the way - even if you get drenched by rain water logging on the street till your knees and you are surrounded by slums on three sides of the complex - you are in a very posh location! And of course since you are getting such a wonderful place, you will have to pay a handsome amount for it - it's only fair and I am sure you would agree.

So I got the idea of an ideal place out of my system fairly quickly and started looking for the least compromised option. After seeing about 30 places over a period of two weeks (did I say that I just had two weeks to find a place?) I finally settled for a nice 1BHK in Powai that didn't cost me a leg and an arm and the owners seemed like reasonable people. It was a new apartment (new in the same meaning that I was aware of till now) and close to my office with the kind of amenities that I would like to have. It was categorized under "semi-furnished" which typically means you get furniture but not electronic items, which seemed to be the case here as well. Turns out that this place was literally semi-furnished. It had a dining table but no chairs, it had a sofa set with the rocking chair missing (I found it later on at the owner's residence when I went to sign the contract), there was a stove without the burners and there was a bed without a mattress. I am not even going to talk about no lights, no curtains and... you still reading?

August 18th, 2008
Oh well, all that's a matter of past now and I am almost settled in my place. I am still waiting to get a burner and a gas cylinder so that I can deliver on my promise to prepare a Thai meal for my bhaiya-bhabhi. I got a fancy microwave/grill/convection combo this morning only too realize that its plug is so huge that it doesn't fit into any of the sockets in the apartment. I am not even going to talk about what I had to go through to get my cable connection and internet (I even had to call TRAI at some point of time - but that's another blog altogether). I think I can safely say that in the last 6 weeks or so I have talked to more people (and machines) than I have done in my entire life. My Sony Ericsson phone has refused to store any more numbers and any time I make a new contact I have to find someone from my past life whom I don't need anymore and delete him (or her) from my life (I mean phonebook) and then add the new person in... has improved my prioritization skills tremendously.

If only I could tell you how much I love this city...

THAILAND TRIP

2008-06-01T13:59:00.000+05:30

Trip Photographs at http://picasaweb.google.com/himanshu.saraf/Thailand

2nd May - Arrival into Bangkok

As the first day of the trip comes to a close I think it's time to jot down some of the experiences of the day. These are more like first impressions of Thailand and more specifically Bangkok as I have hardly seen anything yet and a lot is left to be discovered.

What's with airlines and the duty free catalogue? Has anyone ever found anything in the catalogue whose duty free price is less than the full price one pays in a retail shop in his own city? And somehow there are a few people who would always manage to find a sense in buying the Skagen Titanium watch on the plane for $180 when they could wait for a few hours for the plane to land and buy it at $100 in a shop. The guy must be a partner in a big consulting firm if he really values his time that much!

The Visa on Arrival section at the Suvarnabhumi airport had a sign which read, "Thailand: The Land of Smiles". I was encouraged by the phrase I must say... I felt like I would see a lot of smiling faces along the trip. It was a long line for the visa and it took me about an hour to get to the front. As I reached the counter to get my papers reviewed, I witnessed the guy in front of me being sent back all the way to the end of the line because he had forgotten to write his passport number on the form! The visa guy seemed unmoved by his pleading for mercy... and I don't remember anyone smiling in the whole process... I had to re-calibrate my hopes...

The airport is huge and impeccably clean. I found the staff to be somewhat discourteous and undiplomatic but it could either be a language barrier or just the early morning effect. I will see how things are on my return flight which is in the evening. As you are about to exit the airport you are approached by a number of travel agents/taxi drivers offering you a ride, a hotel and a package you don't need. Ending up with one of these folks could mean a very bad start to your journey so make sure you have a hotel booked before coming and you know how to get there as well (the 2nd best option is to have the hotel pick you up but it would be expensive). The good thing is that once you say no, people don't pester you much after that. Some of them would even give you the information you need... like I said no to cab driver saying that I am taking the bus, and he voluntarily directed me towards the bus counter.

The airport runs a great air conditioned bus service to most parts of the city and in my opinion it's the best way to go to the city though it's slower than a cab since it stops for all passengers. Surprisingly, the bus didn't wait to get filled, it left on time with only 4 passengers though the capacity was about 25-30. A one way ticket to the city is 150 Baht, which is the cheapest alternative available. It doesn't take too long for the bus to reach the city but as soon as it hits Sukhumvit Road it starts to crawl. Traffic lights are quite a few in number and it takes a good 7-8 minutes at each red light. Interestingly enough, you will notice that on many occasions, the light is green but the traffic is still not moving. It's probably because the next signal is Red and the road is packed between the two signals! Sukhumvit happens to be one of the most popular neighborhoods in Bangkok with lots of options to stay, eat and shop for any sized pocket.

One thing that I have noticed on several of my trips is that if you are traveling to a country where its terribly hot, it helps if your flight lands early in the morning and more so if it happened to rain in the night. It creates an illusion as if the weather has magically improved... an illusion that gets shattered by the time you reach your hotel.

The hotel... yes... I want to talk about my hotel now. The bus dropped me at Sukhumvit and Soi 8 (Soi is the name for a side street shooting out of a main street) and my hotel was within walking distance. It was somewhat hidden and I had to ask for directions. The guy initially tried to sell me another hotel but as I mentioned earlier, once I refused he was happy to guide me to my hotel. The hotel is called Suk 11 Guesthouse (Suk for Sukhumvit and 11 for Soi 11). You have to see this place to get a feel of what it is. I had seen numerous pictures on its website and had read multiple reviews as well but I the picture I had in mind was nothing close to what it turned out to be.

I had the impression of an eco-friendly retro looking hotel from the website but it actually turned out to be a backpackers' hostel! Well, to be fair to the reviews and the hostel's website, it was still retro and eco-friendly! It was very dark because they believe in saving light, almost made of wood, the corridors felt like you were walking in a dungeon (see the photograph above of the corridors) but once you are inside your room you had all the usual stuff such as hot water, air conditioning etc. Breakfast was free and was fairly basic but was enough to get you started in the morning. Plus, the common area provided a good opportunity to engage in a conversation with the other backpackers. The internet was the most funny thing... they had a retro looking machine which accepted coins of 10 Bahts and once you insert a coin, the wireless would turn on and you can surf for 15 minutes... the machine had a timer as well! At the end of 15 minutes it would make a sound and stop! It was pretty cool though one could work the system by two or more people using it simultaneously and only one would need to pay. But like most things, people trust you with this in a backpackers hostel. If you take a drink from the refrigerator you can put the money in a jar on top of the refrigerator... no one asks you for it, no monitoring... you just do it.

5th May - Train ride from Bangkok to Chiang Mai

So my sojourn in Bangkok Comes to an end and quite an eventful 3 days these have been. I couldn't make a side day trip to Kanchanaburi (The Bridge on the River Kwai fame and the Tiger Temple) or Ayutthaya (remains of ancient Buddhist temples) primarily because I didn't want to make the stay in Bangkok too hectic for me and secondly Bangkok had in itself so much too offer that I felt it needed that extra day anyway. So, I decided to dedicate one full day to check out the Grand Palace, all the Wats (temples) and the river cruises and keep another full day to explore the multiple shopping options that the city offers. There are as many temples in Bangkok as there are Sois along Sukhumvit but to save time and retain some novelty I decided to pick the most popular ones only, namely Wat Pho, Wat Arun and Wat Phra Kaeo. Getting to these from my hostel was a breeze. I took the skytrain near my hostel to Saphan Takshin station which is by the Chao Phraya River. There are a few types of boats that run from this pier and take you to many stops along the river including the temples. The Express Boat costs 15 Baht for a one way journey and takes about 20-25 minutes to reach Tha Chang, the pier closest to Wat Phra Kaeo. For the more romantic souls there is the Long Tail Boat which takes only a few people along for a more speedy ride but at a handsome price as well. A group of 4 might pay about 800-900 Baht and a single traveler might have to shell out as much as 500 Baht. The lady sitting in front of me in this train took the long tail boat by mistake as she didn't know about the Express Boat! Moral of the story - Please enquire about all the options before choosing one, for anything anywhere in Bangkok.

As soon as you get off the pier you are greeted by a small market selling fresh fruits and lots of other things to eat which I didn't dare try! There are showpieces and other gifts to be bought but I doubt the prices were the best you could get in Bangkok. The Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaeo temple is a short walk from here and is so huge that it can't be missed. As I was walking along the boundary of the temple, I came to an entrance for the complex with a crowd standing there with no one being able to get in. The security guy told us that the palace was closed and another taxi guy suggested we come again tomorrow and meanwhile he offered his services to take people to another temple nearby. I walked around the complex to find another entrance on the other side and to my surprise not only was that entrance open, we were told that the entrance that day was free for some reason!! The free entry might explain why people were being turned away from the other entrance to be taken away to some other place with an entry fee!! A similar thing happened in Wat Pho. The entry was supposed to be free but quite a few tourists were being given fake tickets and charged a price. What was shocking was that the security personnel were involved in all of these cases. This was as good a scam I saw during my stay :-). Wat Arun incidentally was not free and I had to pay 50 Baht to get in but the money spent was worth it. The temples in Thailand don't allow you in if you are not well covered as they find it disrespectful. They can provide you shawls etc to cover yourself if needed. One of the American girls well, wasn't too well covered and asked the ticket counter if she needs to borrow a shawl and the they said it's ok. Later inside the temple an American man walked up to the girl and gave her a lesson on how disrespectful it was of her to walk into a temple dressed like that!

I am not going to tell you how beautiful or magnificent the temples looked plus I don't have the vocabulary to explain to you the kind of stones being used in the temples or the style of architecture followed so I will let my pictures do the talking. It was evening by the time I was done with the temples and I decided to take the boat back to Saphan Takshin. The sun had set by the time I was on the boat and lights had started to come up everywhere including some of the fancier boats and the numerous temples along the river which makes for a beautiful sight as your boat cruises along the river. Thailand's skyline is not as magnificent as most big cities, it nonetheless adds a good backdrop to the temples with the river flowing in the front.

The Train Journey - I had a decent company in Georgina, her daughter and two grand kids (Maxine and Luke) from Vancouver. She was very well traveled and it was fun talking to her about her experiences traveling in India and sharing notes on Bangkok and weather in Vancouver and Kayaking in Glacier Bay. Her dog chasing the bears into the river, the windstorm crashing trees into her neighbor's house and her grand kid Luke breaking his nose while snowboarding. We touched upon more sensitive issues such as Canadians loosing jobs to people in China, people having to trade their window office for a cubicle and how she gets free tickets to Cirque Du Soleil and how difficult it is to critique a bad play when the writer is a good friend of yours. She is a critic for the Vancouver paper Career.

8th May - Suvarnabhumi Airport

Ok, here I am at the Starbucks at the airport waiting for my flight 5 hours later. Wish I had booked an earlier flight to Singapore, would have given me some more time there. Right now I will get a little over two days, which seem clearly insufficient to do justice to the city and Supriya! Anyways, this is my first visit to a Starbucks in Asia and I must say I am pleasantly surprised that the Raspberry Latte tastes the same here as it did in Baltimore, Washington DC, San Francisco, London, Paris and Edinburgh. I don't think it's one of the best coffee you can get but you at least have to give credit to it for its consistency.

There is a lot that I need to write about as I haven't been very regular at jotting down my experiences from Bangkok as well as Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai in particular was quite eventful and exciting. A short trip but definitely worth taking. So the train journey ended peacefully. I slept well at night and got up early in the morning to catch some of the scenery from the train window. The view was quite scenic with lush green all over with mountains in the backdrop. I wished I was taking a car journey instead so that I could stop at will to take pictures. As a matter of principle I refuse to take pictures through a window. I arrived at the Chiang Mai station at about 7 in the morning and I immediately went to my hotel. Chiang Mai in addition to the tuk-tuks and the metered taxi also has a Red Taxi which is an open van that seats about 10 people and is the cheapest of all three. It took about 50 Baht to reach my hotel. The hotel was on a side street from one of the main roads in Chiang Mai called Moon Muang Road. It was in a quite setting and in addition to a nice breakfast/lunch place of its own, had a few good coffee places around it (for those who don't know me well, cafes are all I need to survive in any country). I just noticed a few monks pass by in front of the Starbucks... I have never seen monks at an airport before! Anyways, a nice girl in one of these cafes who had earlier helped me find the hotel, made me a nice cheese sandwich, salad and fresh carrot juice along with a lovely smile, all for just 60 Baht.

I had come to Chiang Mai with no plans whatsoever and had to quickly pull up my socks to make use of the short stay there. As soon as I reached the hotel I looked up on the internet and found the most popular tourist attractions and in a flash signed up for the No.1 activity - Flight of the Gibbon! As the name suggests it is related to jumping from tree to tree like a gibbon - or ziplining in more technical terms. Treetop Adventures have set up canopies in the tall trees of the Chiang Mai rainforests and have connected them through cables and one can go from tree to tree using the cables just like cable cars do, the difference being here you are the cable car... We were a group of 6 on that tour along with one instructor and an assistant of his. Apart from me, there was an Australian couple, an English guy an American guy and a local Thai friend of his (who inspite of living in Chiang Mai was trying this for the first time). We had to cover about 15 trees and it took us 2-3 hours to do so. It is scary the first time you let yourself go on that cable but is nonetheless easier than it looks in videos or pictures. And it gets more and more fun as you loose fear and start enjoying it by trying new things such as going backwards, making funny postures while on the way (the instructor was great at this - he looked like Jim Carrey on the cables!). After a few rides I got the courage to let my hands be free and not worry about hitting a tree branch on the way... I also shot a few videos while I was ziplining... I will put them up on youtube soon. Unfortunately the photographs or the videos don't truly capture the feeling we had while we were zooming past trees hundreds of feet above the ground but should be enough to give the uninitiated a good idea of what it is all about.

We headed back from the forest for our hotels at about 5 pm or so and I wasn't planning to do much after that, so I was looking forward to an uneventful and relaxed evening in the hotel but that wasn't meant to be. I had shared the cab with the Australian couple on the way to the forest but on the return trip I was moved to the taxi with the American guy and the Thai girl for some reason, which was ok to me. All of us were tired and so half way to the destination (it was about an hour ride) the other two people fell asleep while I was enjoying the village scenery from the navigator seat in the car. In Thailand you have these strange vehicles with a small trolley attached to a motorcycle on the side, used to carry stuff. One of this came ahead from the side of the street and suddenly started to change lanes. It was traveling quite slowly to be changing lanes ahead of us and our driver honked at him, he continued to do so, then our driver tried to swerve past him and he seemed to move still closer and then our driver jammed the brakes and the car skidded like crazy and ultimately went on to hit the vehicle. The impact was so strong that I was sure my airbag would open up but it didn't (later I checked, there was no airbag in the car!). I was scared that the cab had run the guy over but when the car stopped, the motorcycle driver was lying to my left... with blood on his face and on the road. I tried to get out of the car but the door had jammed because of the impact. The accident had woken up the other two guys and everyone got out, I used the back door to get out. Meanwhile a couple of vehicles following us had stopped to check the matter out. In a flash there was an American guy and a Thai guy with some medical knowledge checking the injured man, giving him first aid and talking to him to make sure he is conscious and remembers things. To my utter surprise no one attempted to or even thought of beating up the taxi driver who was standing in one corner talking to his taxi company. Fortunately, the man was not too severely injured, no visible fractures though his hand was hurting a lot, a lot of swelling on the head and some bleeding from the face. His trolley and scooter was badly damaged but our car had much more damage done to it.

We were not expecting to be able to go back in the same car. Soon more people stopped and a few rescue vans came. A couple of people took the responsibility of directing the traffic around the accident site. The rescue vans were followed by a couple of police vans. The first thing the policemen did were to take a few pictures of the man, his vehicle and the car (which I had done already as soon as I got out but I had kept my camera back in as soon as the police had arrived as I didn't know what to expect from them). The rescue vans took the injured guy to the hospital and the policemen interrogated the driver for a few minutes. He was later asked to drive the car (along with us) to the police station and I was surprised that the car was still driveable. I was expecting that we will have to give our statements at the station but that didn't happen. No one ever said a word to us and another taxi was called at the station to take us to our hotels. Not sure what became of our first driver... I reached the hotel safely but I am still amazed by how smoothly the whole process was handled. I don't recall anyone getting mad or angry at any stage or trying to put blame on person or the other... if it was India, the cab driver would have been in poor shape by now...

I am still at the Starbucks... you know why? No, not because I drink my coffee very slowly (well, I still have some coffee left but that's deliberate) but because they have electrical outlets so that I can charge my laptop... I plan to keep writing while I am on the flight.

I didn't do anything that night except going out for dinner. I couldn't find an Indian restaurant nearby so ended up having fried rice with eggs at a Thai place. I have found fried rice to be a safe bet at any Asian place as there is no likelihood of them adding any meat to it unless you specify it so. Another thing that I have noticed with fried rice in an Asian restaurant is that it fills you up quickly but then you start feeling hungry again in a couple of hours... so I went to the 7-11 after that and got myself a few cookies and a can of chocolate milk just in case I get hungry at night. Turned out, I slept too early to feel hungry... I got up at about 2:30 in the morning in a frantic mode as I had not yet planned the next day and I had to check out from the hotel at 10 am. I once again sought the help of my old friend, the internet, and zeroed down on a Thai cooking class for the next day. The timing seemed to fit my plan as well since I had to catch a train at 9 pm and this thing would get over by 5 pm. I went to bed and put an alarm for 7 in the morning and as usual got up at 8:15. Called up the thai cooking company to make a reservation and they were like, "we pick you up at 8:25" and I am like, yeah sure... how about 9? He said 9 is too late, and we eventually settled on 8:50! What followed was an act that I had mastered over several years of living out of a suitcase - getting fresh, ready, light breakfast and packing up and check out in 30 minutes flat! The instructor came to pick me up at 8:50 along with 5 other folks - a couple from Portland, two girls from Spain and a girl from Perth, Australia. The girls from Spain were a bit quiet and kept more to themselves but I had an interesting conversation with the rest of the folks. Victoria, from Perth, was two weeks into her 5 month round the world trip whereas Steve and Kate had just moved from New York City to Portland and were taking a one month vacation in south east asia quite similar to mine.

29th May - Suvarnabhumi Airport

I am back here, this time to take the flight back home. This has been a wonderful trip and as I walk along the same shops as I did 3 weeks ago I can't help but recall everything that has happened during this time. The memory of me sitting in the Starbucks, having coffee and writing this journal is still as fresh in my mind as is the smell of the coffee from Starbucks! I had a few hours to kill at the airport so I decided to grab a coffee and edit some of the photographs. This time I decided to try a different cafe, right next to the Starbucks as they had some very tempting ice creams as well. Free wireless internet on top of it clinched the deal for me. I had some trouble getting on to the internet as they had some weird encryption system but once I was connected I had to help a couple of other customers as well as the cafe staff had no clue how to make things work. The next few hours were just plain wonderful... extra hot latte with coconut, apple and kiwi ice cream and free internet... what else do I want? :-) I took this opportunity to recall some of my experiences while in Bangkok, some things that were very prominent or unexpected, things that I probably won't forget that easily...

Shop till you drop - For most people shopping is the biggest attraction of Bangkok after the temples. Bangkok has earned a reputation as a place for finding anything and everything at very low prices. This I found true only to an extent. The part about being able to find anything and everything is real but the pricing part is only partially correct. Bangkok has some of the biggest malls in Asia with big brand names such as Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Hugo Boss, Armani, Cartier, Rolex, Mont Blanc and even Ferrari. Don't expect to get anything cheap/discounted at these places. I don't think it makes much of a difference if you buy these things in Bangkok or some other country without much duty on imported goods. In fact I verified the prices of some of the electronic items with the prices in United States and US was consistently cheaper for electronics. I later on realized that US is one of the cheapest markets globally for electronics! Shopping in Bangkok becomes fun and cheap if you are content with local stuff... things made in Thailand, China or some other Asian countries. This mostly includes handicrafts, leather goods, wooden artifacts, accessories for electronics, cosmetics, clothes etc. These can be found (sometimes the exact same items) at big malls as well as at the numerous street shops along Sukhumvit. Just be prepared to bargain really hard if you want to get the right price. 30% of quoted price is a good place to start. If you pay more than 50%, you shouldn't be made incharge of the cash. Don't buy too much from the same shop. There are no golden opportunities... the same stuff is at hundreds of shops... so explore...

Meeting other Indians - This is a global phenomenon - Indians ignore other Indians. After I left the airport in Bangkok I didn't run into any Indians for the next two days. On the 3rd day while I was walking around in search of an Indian restaurant I heard a familiar accent. I looked back to find an Indian couple to my delight. I immediately exclaimed, "oh, you are the first Indian people I have run into here!" The response - the weakest smile you can imagine and they turned away... I tried making a conversation but soon realized they weren't interested... too bad. I wished them a fun trip and moved on. I don't recall interacting with any Indian for the rest of my stay there... though I saw quite a few. One place where you are guaranteed running into Indians is an Indian restaurant and there are quite a few of them in Thailand, particularly Bangkok. The place where I was staying was great in this regard as I had three Indian restaurants within 5 minutes walking distance. One called Bawarchi across the street from me, another one called Shalimar in the same lane as my hotel and another one called Dosa King on an adjacent street. After taking a look at all three I finally settled on Dosa King and stuck with it throughout my stay in Bangkok. It was relatively less crowded, reasonably priced and the food seemed authentic. Judging by the 2 BMWs that were permanently parked outside the restaurant, I am guessing the owner was doing well for himself. And as I mentioned earlier, I saw quite a few Indians while at the restaurant and not even once had any kind of a conversation.

Meeting Locals - You would expect that it would be much easier to interact with the local people simply because there are so many of them and that they might be excited to talk to people from other countries... well, not really... I found that many locals are skeptical of tourists and try to maintain a distance. If someone approaches you on his or her own to initiate a conversation you can be 100% sure that they are trying to sell you something. If you are in a shop and do indeed buy something from there, then you can get the shopkeeper to talk a lot and it might make for an interesting discussion as well. But just trying to engage in a conversation without buying anything doesn't go down too well with people. I found it very hard just to mingle with some local people and have a harmless non-financial cultural exchange. May be you have to look harder to find the right people... I just didn't have the patience and time I guess...

Young girls at work - Does anyone go to school in Bangkok? If I had not seen a few people in school uniform I would have thought no, as all young guys and particularly girls seem to be working somewhere or the other. Half of the MBK (one of the biggest malls in Bangkok) seems to be run by young men and women who are either of school or college going age. I was looking for a case for my iPod at one of these shops and the girls working there were... well, quite young. So, I asked them if they go to school and how do people typically manage studies along side working. They just laughed about it... I think they were not too serious about studies or it might just be that they didn't understand a word of what I said and were laughing at my weird accent or something :-)

Transport/Getting Around - Thailand in general and Bangkok specifically are very tourist friendly when it comes to commuting in and around the city to catch the major attractions. There are two distinct modes of commuting in the old city of Bangkok where all the temples are and in the new part where you have all the hotels, malls, shopping etc. The newer part has the Skytrain, the MRT (Metro), Tuk-Tuks and Scooters whereas you can get around in the the old city using tuk-tuks, scooters and a multitude of ferries/boats that run in the Chao Phraya river. The public transport system in Bangkok is extremely efficient, clean and well maintained. The BTS Skytrain although a bit pricey is very well connected, extremely clean and convenient. The route on which the Skytrain doesn't operate is covered by the MRT metro which is much cheaper than the Skytrain. Tuk-tuks are the Thai version of the Indian auto rickshaw, nothing more nothing less.

What is most fascinating about public transport in Thailand are the motor bikes - perhaps the only country where motorcycles are used as a paid taxi service. They do have motorbikes in Vietnam as well but those don't seem as official as the ones in Thailand and are primarily meant to con tourists by charging a ridiculous price for a one hour tour of the city and then forcing you to buy a beer for them at the end. In Thailand, the motor bike riders are wearing those jerseys which traffic police or road construction workers typically wear (the ones with fluorescent orange color that reflect light). Unlike Vietnam, this service is used by the local people as well to get quickly from one place to another particularly on routes where the Skytrain or MRT doesn't operate. While you are taking a ride on a tuk-tuk or a motorbike, one thing that you notice is that no one honks, no matter how crowded the road is. I didn't see any sign of a road rage while I was there, traffic somehow operates very smoothly. I can expect to see something like that in USA but I didn't expect it in Thailand. I must say I was impressed with the demeanor of the folks on the road...

Time went by pretty quickly editing pictures and living those moments once again in mind and very soon it was time for me to check in for my flight. The extra hot coffee had become super cold by now, suggesting that I better move out of the cafe.

Useful Facts/Tips for a trip to Thailand:

1. The electrical outlets in Thailand are the same as in US so, folks with laptops and cameras from US don't need any converter.

2. Cameras are not cheaper in Thailand.

3. If a local approaches you on his own, he is more often than not trying to sell you something. No harm in talking to him, just make it very clear that you are not interested in whatever he is offering.

4. The official word is not always the right one. I was asked to buy tickets at a few places which were meant to be free. A few cross questions or deeper digging will get you the right information. Look for prices, admission rules etc. in writing somewhere rather than believing your guide or security personnel.